Gar-Field boys and girls put forth solid performances at Allen Johnson

FAIRFAX, VA -- Gar-Field put together almost equally solid performances on both the boys and girls side to capture the team championship at the Fifth Annual Allen Johnson Invitational held at Lake Braddock this past Saturday.

In the battle for the team title, in which the scoring in each event is through eight places on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis and the boys and girls scores for each school are combined to determine the winner, Gar-Field placed first with 203 points (109 girls; 94 boys) with host Lake Braddock second with 181 points (127 girls; 54 boys) and Oakton a close third with 174 points (111 girls; 63 boys).

Gar-Field was led in the field events by Tiffany Evans and in the running events by freshman Kharya Brown along with senior Antoine Woods.

Evans set the lone meet record in the field events on either the boys or girls side with her victory in the shot put at 44 feet, 3.5 inches as she shattered the old meet record by almost four feet and won the event by over seven feet. Evans also placed third in the discus throw at 113-5 and her efforts earned her the girls outstanding field event performer award.

Kharya Brown continued her outstanding freshman campaign with wins in the 100 meter dash at 12.41 seconds and 200 dash (25.25) and also ran the second leg on the Indians\' 4x400 relay which also included Raeisha Warren, Raina Brown and Tonetta Harris and set a new meet record of 3:56.36.

Antoine Woods was the top point producer for Gar-Field\'s boys in the running events in placing second in both the 110 meter high hurdles (14.90) and 300 intermediate hurdles (39.63).

Woods finished second in both hurdle events at an area invitational for the second week in a row to Lake Braddock\'s Craig Gallimore. The junior standout greatly aided the runnerup cause for the Bruins in claiming the 110 hurdles in 14.80 and the 300 hurdles at 38.67 in addition to finishing sixth in the 200 dash (22.70).

Lake Braddock swept the hurdle events with senior Alexandra VanHeuven matching Gallimore\'s performance on the girls side as she won the girls 100 hurdles in 15.73 and the 300 hurdles in 46.69. In addition, VanHueven anchored the 4x100 relay team for the Bruins which also included Jessica Preko, Jenny Eakin and Courtney Sanders to victory in 50.06 and claimed the girls outstanding running events performer award for her accomplishments.

Third place Oakton was paced by seniors Bonnie Meekins and Phil Gaeta. Meekins successfully defended her title in the girls high jump (5-7) and Meekins also won the the long jump at 17-1.5 in addition to running the third leg on the Cougars\' 4x400 relay squad which posted an automatic state qualifying time of 3:56.65 in finishing a close second to Gar-Field.

Gaeta rallied the Oakton boys 4x800 relay team which included Matt Gold, Kris Cruz and George Banks, from third place at the start of his anchor leg to the win in a state leading time of 7:57.70 with his smoothly striding split of 1:52.5. Gaeta then came back later in the day to easily capture the 400 dash in 49.95 and his efforts earned the American University bound senior the boys outstanding running events performer award.

Westfield placed fourth with 109 points and got victories in the boys events from John Schenck in the 100 dash (10.95) and sophomore David Groff in the 800 run. Groff was third coming into the the homestretch and in an exciting duel with Annandale\'s Doug McClellan in the final 50 meters, held on to win in 1:57.31. McClellan had an excellent day in placing a close second in the 800 run at 1:57.40; running a sub 1:58 opening leg in the 4x800 relay and posting a 50 second opening leg in the 4x400 relay for the Atoms.

Centreville was fifth in the overall team scoring with 95 points and had sophomore Daniel Bailey set a new meet record in winning the boys 200 dash at 21.91 to eclipse former Wildcats star Rickey Harris\'s mark of 22.05 and Centreville also got wins in the pole vault from seniors Alicia LaRoche (11-0) and David Sullivan (14-0).

Robinson was sixth with 92 points and had the boys outstanding field event performer award winner in Steve Huntzinger. The Rams junior was a double victor in taking the discus by over twenty feet at (167-11) and also winning the shot put (54-1) while Jefferson was seventh among the 17 teams entered with 87 points. The Colonials were tough in the boys distance races as sophomore Christo Landry just missed the meet record in the 1,600 run with a personal best winning time of 4:20.47 and junior Keith Bechtol went negative split in the 3,200 run (4:49; 4:37) to also run a personal best winning time of 9:26.51.

Other winners on the boys side in the field events included Nick Crumpton of Langley in the triple jump (45-6), Derek Liggins of Gar-Field in the long jump (20-11) and Gar-Field\'s Larry Evans in the high jump (6-2). In running events, the T.C. Williams quartet of Kennedy Kyei-Mensah, Chidi Muomaife, Nulie McCarthy and Timothy Nunn won in season leading time of 3:21.14 and Hayfield\'s 4x100 relay team of Marcus Tyus, Adam Bush, Randle Logan and Robert Malone led from the gun out of lane 6 and easily dusted the field to win in a meet record time of 42.42.

Other winners in the girls events included Tonetta Harris of Gar-Field in the 400 dash (57.65), Centreville sophomore Dacia Barr in the 800 run (2:18.55), Oakton freshman Danielle Light running a 71 second final 400 to capture the 1,600 run (5:12.89) and Oakton\'s Emily Adams ran evenly paced splits to take the 3,200 run (11:21.72).

West Springfield\'s 4x800 relay squad of Kelly Osborn, Andrea Delgado, Jen Powers and Katie Freund won in 9:42.86 in holding off runnerup Herndon (9:44.38) while Oakton\'s Kathleen Woody took triple jump honors (35-6.25) and Lake Braddock junior Jessica Sawers won the discus throw (123-9).

At the Third Annual Gus Lacy Invitational held at Fork Union this past Saturday, Deep Creek won the boys team title with 122 points and Western Branch the girls title with 94 points. Forest Park finished fifth on the boys side with 35 points as Reynold Smith won the long jump at 22-1.75 and then came back to claim the triple jump by over two feet with his winning effort of 46-7.5 while Smith\'s teammate Sam Hill finished second in the discus throw (149-9) and third in the shot put (49-4.5). Forest Park scored 20 points to finish tenth on the girls side as Beth Fahey won the 3,200 run (11:26.50) and also placed second in the 1,600 run (5:21.54).

At the Obie Calhoun Invitational held at Brentsville High on Saturday, South Lakes took the girls team title with 111 points with senior Latasha Ewell a double winner in taking the shot put (36-3) and discus throw (122-4) while junior Adrienne Mayo set a new meet record in the triple jump (37-9.5).